Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is the most performed living composer in the world. His music grows out of his deep religious faith and interest in mysticism, using the minimum means to achieve a high degree of intensity. Because of his music’s similarity to the structure of bell sounds, he calls his style "tintinnabuli". Annum per annum (Year by year) was commissioned in 1980 for the 900th anniversary of Speyer Cathedral in Germany. The piece consists of an introduction, five variations, and a coda. Each variation represents one of the five parts of the mass ordinary — K (Kyrie), G (Gloria), C (Credo), S (Sanctus), and A (Agnus Dei) — which has been celebrated day after day, year by year, for nine centuries in the cathedral of Speyer. The piece begins in d minor, but shifts to D major at the point in the Credo that corresponds with “and He rose again on the third day”.

The images are from medieval illuminated manuscripts of the respective parts of the mass, from the digital collections of The British Library (bl.uk), The Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland (www.e-codices.ch), and The Free Library of Philadelphia (www.freelibrary.org).

Recorded at Saint Clement's Episcopal Church, Saint Paul, MN, on 23rd June 2020.
Nils Halker, organist and photographer.
1964 Aeolian-Skinner, II/26
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Kyrie:

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1758, p. 375 – Graduale de tempore, Ordinarium missae, Sequentiar: [ Ссылка ]

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S I 251, f. 107r – Cantatorium Solodorense: [ Ссылка ]

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S III 1, f. 288r – Graduale Fratrum Minorum: [ Ссылка ]

Gloria:

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1758, p. 376 – Graduale de tempore, Ordinarium missae, Sequentiar : [ Ссылка ]

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S III 1, f. 293v – Graduale Fratrum Minorum: [ Ссылка ]

Credo:

Romont, Abbaye de la Fille-Dieu Romont, Ms. liturg. FiD 5, f. 124r – Cistercian Gradual: [ Ссылка ]

Sanctus:

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S I 251, f. 104v – Cantatorium Solodorense: [ Ссылка ]

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S III 1, f. 289r – Graduale Fratrum Minorum : [ Ссылка ]

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S III 1, f. 295r – Graduale Fratrum Minorum : [ Ссылка ]

Agnus Dei:

Romont, Abbaye de la Fille-Dieu Romont, Ms. liturg. FiD 5, f. 127v – Cistercian Gradual: [ Ссылка ]

Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek, Cod. S III 1, f. 289v – Graduale Fratrum Minorum : [ Ссылка ]

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